Archive for September, 2008

I admit, I’ve been doing a lot of political posts lately and have another one brewing in my head, but I thought I’d post about my actual, real life for once.

So, things have been going remarkably well for me lately. It’s like the dam has burst and the floodwaters are pouring over me. Very symbolic, very nice. I feel rejuvenated and refreshed, and can’t believe I’m in the position I’m in for once in my life. I’m in an amazing relationship that makes me supremely happy. I work a lot, but the benefits are finally starting to roll in from that. I almost have a fully functioning Linux system. I have incredible friends.

I just discovered that I’ll be able to go to ICC, for one thing. I didn’t think I would be able to, but I kept focusing on a way. I knew that something would happen to make it possible. Last week I got paid for all three of my jobs at once, and doing some quick and simple math, estimating income conservatively and output liberally, I found I’d be able to make it with room to spare.

What else does this mean? It means I don’t have to rely on my parents to help with expenses. I can pay site fees (wanted to at Changeling, had the cash in my pocket, and I forgot to give it to the DC). I can stop mooching off friends and loved ones who, bless them, have been helpful and never asked for anything in return. I don’t have to worry about where things are coming from as much.

I admit, it’s the finances that really got me for a while. Now that that’s taken care of, I can focus on the other things I want to do in my life. I can get back to playing my guitar. I can catch up on Doctor Who (which I’ve been doing since last night and am two episodes short of finishing) and all the shows I want. I can fix my Linux system to work for me, damn it. I can get my car re-registered in my name (actually did that this morning). I can start those dance lessons I’ve wanted once my schedule gets more stable. M’lady suggested I even look into seeing my chiropractor again, whom I haven’t seen since 2005 and so very much want to visit regularly again as I believe that will help work out any problems I’m having with my body as well.

Basically, I’ve been saying for a while that things are “starting to fall into place.” Now they are actively falling into place one at a time, and the universe of possibilities for my life at this point is positively endless. I almost don’t know where to start, but I think the best option would be with ICC and then see how things go from there.

The saddest thing is that Sen. Lindsey Graham seems to actually believe what he’s saying. Now I know what the person in the Parable of the Cave must have felt like.

Now, I’ll grant that there has been some progress in Iraq, but it’s based on the false premise that a stable Iraqi government will somehow stop a band of mountain-dwelling guerrillas from prosecuting a war around the world using techniques that ignore national boundaries and have no allegiance to any recognized state. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a stable Iraqi government, but the propaganda surrounding this war and how the Republican party is hanging the life of every kid who’s died or been wounded there on this idea that if we just hang out a little longer, terrorism will be defeated and nobody will ever blow themselves up in a crowded area to prove a point ever again is almost too thick to slog through.

I mean, he’s harping on about how our troops are winning in Iraq. He insisted that if we hadn’t gone into Iraq, al-Qaeda would have taken over America, sectarian violence would have spread through the Middle East, and Iran would have filled the void. I really wish I was exaggerating, but he actually said all of those. Exactly what is this fantasy based on? Maybe it’s the rhetoric of our Communist masters that slowly took over the world after winning Vietnam, afraid for their own power.

And all of this after the horrendously exploitive 9/11 video. Followed by the craziest, most pointless, most misdirecting video about Sarah Palin I’ve ever seen. How can somebody who wants to drill in a wildlife refuge be described as “loving her environment”? How can somebody who is pro-life, pro-gun, pro-drilling, pro-censorship, pro-Bible values, and pro-deficit-spending be described as a “maverick”? They used that word so many times that, had he been watching it, pen_dragon would have been blitzed beyond belief.

Cindy McCain talking about how you need a steady hand on the wheel. “But you know what, I’ve always thought you need a woman’s hand…at the wheel as well.” For the record, that is not where my head went after heading the first half of that sentence. Secondly, yes, I get that this is the political puppet show. And yes, I understand that the Democrats were just as self-congratulatory and sentimentalist, but they also had some sort of grounding in reality. I feel like I’ve watched an hour and a half, so far, of insistences that we’re winning in Iraq and Sarah Palin is a great leader with a vast amount of experience. It’s like, if they say it enough, it’ll be true. Are there no other issues in this country?

As far as Cindy’s speech, it wasn’t bad, but it seriously read like an Alger Hiss novel. Rags to riches family, taught special needs kids and migrant families, worked with Mother Theresa, was rejected for sainthood for being a good Protestant. And this was all her describing herself. There was a bit about Palin and how she’s going to shake things up. She had a section in which she talked about less government, and that makes me wonder if she only means when it comes to taxing business or if she means keeping the government from spying on me.

Took them 45 seconds for the introduction video for McCain to use the phrase, “prisoner of war.” I love how nobody mentions that McCain himself admits in his “Prisoner of War: A First-hand Account,” that he agreed to give them military secrets if they brought him to the hospital. That there are records of him being quoted in Hanoi newspapers during that time. That some of his comrades from the Hanoi Hilton have called him “Songbird McCain” for years because of his behavior at that camp. I really don’t think the POW thing, when put under scrutiny, stands up.

What I will say about McCain’s speech is that I can at least respect that he didn’t directly attribute 9/11 to Iraq or say that we would have been attacked again if we didn’t go into Iraq. He did say that “many people believe” that we would have been attacked again, but I can grant that that’s the Party line and he has to at least toe it. I also will grant him that he tried to be gracious when it came to Obama and it came off as almost being sincere until he paraphrased the opening line of the Declaration of Independence. However, his bit about “once we win, we will reach out our hands to any willing patriot,” really bugged me, if only because I know what his definition of “patriot” is.